The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Neoregelia plant, botanically known as Neoregelia hybrid and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Maria’.
The new Neoregelia plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Princeton, Fla. The objective of the breeding program is to create new Neoregelia plants with uniquely colored leaves.
The new Neoregelia plant originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in 2002 in Princeton, Fla. of an unnamed proprietary selection of Neoregelia macrosepala, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with the Neoregelia hybrid ‘Rivera’, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Neoregelia plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled greenhouse environment in Princeton, Fla. in 2002.
Asexual reproduction of the new Neoregelia plant by offsets in a controlled environment in Princeton, Fla. since 2002, has shown that the unique features of this new Neoregelia plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.